Here’s Why You Should Eat More Eggs
Eggs, which are sometimes referred to as ‘nature’s multivitamins,’ are one of the healthiest and most beneficial foods you can eat during the day. Both the white and the yolk of an egg are rich in nutrients. They are packed with proteins, vitamins and minerals, with the yolk also containing cholesterol, fat-soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids.
They are also a very significant and versatile ingredient for cooking – think of their chemical make-up as the glue of many important baking reactions. So, to sum it up, eggs are absolutely awesome, but let’s see what makes them so amazing:
1. They are among the most nutritious foods you can eat
Whenever you eat a whole egg, you are actually ingesting an insane amount of nutrients. In case you forgot, one egg contains everything that a single fertilized cell requires in order to grow into a baby chicken. Eggs are loaded with vitamins, minerals, high-quality proteins, good fats and an abundance of other lesser-known nutrients that are important for the body’s proper functioning.
Here’s a complete list of what a single whole egg contains:
- Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin): 9% of the RDA.
- Vitamin A: 6% of the RDA.
- Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): 15% of the RDA.
- Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid): 7% of the RDA.
- Selenium: 22% of the RDA.
Also, eggs contain small amounts of almost every single vitamin and mineral required by the human body, including iron, potassium, calcium, zinc, manganese, Vitamin E, Folate and many, many more.
2. Eggs actually improve your cholesterol profile
And you know what else? They do NOT increase your risk of cardiovascular disease.
The main reason people are constantly treating eggs as more of a liability than as a food is that they are loaded with cholesterol, which is completely true, there’s no denying it. One large egg contains just over 200mg of cholesterol, which is a lot compared to most other foods. However, just because a certain food contains cholesterol doesn’t necessarily mean that it will raise the bad cholesterol in the blood.
In fact, your liver produces cholesterol – and it does so every single day! Logically, if you eat cholesterol, your liver produces less, if you don’t eat it, your liver produces more. The thing is that there are hundreds of studies that show that eggs can actually improve your cholesterol profile. Eggs tend to raise HDL cholesterol and they can change the LDL cholesterol to a large subtype which is not associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
3. Eggs are packed with choline
Choline is a lesser-known nutrient that is often grouped with the B-complex vitamins. Also, you wouldn’t believe it, but 90% of people in the U.S. aren’t taking in enough choline. You know what else? Egg yolks are an excellent source of choline.
Choline is an essential nutrient for human health as it is needed for various processes in the body – it is the key to synthesizing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, as well as a vital component of cell membranes. In other words, a low choline intake has been connected with liver diseases, cardiovascular disease and even neurological disorders.
Choline is especially important for pregnant women. Studies have shown that a low choline intake can raise the risk of neural tube defects, thus leading to decreased cognitive function in the offspring. So, if you want to make sure that never happens to you and your child, go get some egg yolks and beef liver, both of which are fantastic sources of choline – one large egg contains about 113mg of choline.
